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Sagem announces two new eco-friendly PVRs

Want to turn your TV green? Get a Freeview receiver, one-touch recording, pause/rewind and hard drive storage - all with low power draw

French manufacturer Sagem has joined the budget PVR fray with the DTR64160T (160GB hard drive, £99) and the DTR67250T (250GB hard drive, HDMI, £149).

As well as price, both models have a further edge on potential competition in terms of their eco credentials: power consumption of less than 2 watts-per-hour in standby mode, 15 watts in operation. This puts them well within recommended limits for digital television recorders published by the EST (Energy Saving Trust).

The problem of standby power draw is particularly relevant to PVRs, which cannot be fully switched off as they need to be 'woken' by a timer to record scheduled programmes. Many devices also download software and updates over the air while not in full use.

Devices on standby account for 1% of the world's CO2 emissions, and in 2004 accounted for 8% of all UK domestic electricity consumption. Levels are thought to have risen further since then.

The International Energy Agency have called for a 1 watt limit on standby power consumption, while in America, government agencies are prohibited from buying off-the-shelf electronics with a standby power draw greater than 1 watt.